


Suspected Malware

by fabricdragon



Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempted Seduction, Canon-Typical Violence, Interrogation, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Skyfall, Security Clearance, Suspicions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-08
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-19 18:01:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14878620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fabricdragon/pseuds/fabricdragon
Summary: The new M, Gareth Mallory, suspects that his Quartermaster may have been in league with Silva.  To test it he recalls Alec Trevalyan...





	1. The Assignment

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RussianWitch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RussianWitch/gifts).



“You called me back to what?” Alec Trevelyan stared at this man, who had the nerve to sit in M’s chair. “Director Mallory, if you don’t TRUST the boffin just have him picked up and questioned!”

Mallory, to his credit didn’t rise to the  bait or insist on having her title. “The difficulty is that if he is genuine, if he is not a security risk, I cannot afford to alienate him.” Mallory got out his headache pills and swallowed one.

“Ask JAMES to seduce the git!  He may prefer girls, but he’s got the skills!”

“Agent Bond has worked extensively with the Quartermaster…”  Mallory decided not to mention the tension between the two that no one was sure would end in death or a date. “… and it would be suspicious if he started asking the wrong questions… especially since he was present for the problems.”

Alec sat back in his chair. “So that’s why you met me here, instead of in MI6 proper?”

“Yes.” Mallory handed him a file,” This is the Silva incident–all reports, everything.  Need I even mention how high a clearance this is?”

“Shoot before reading stuff, looks like.” Alec said opening the file.

“Exactly.  Read that, study it, and talk to me in three days… I need to know if our Quartermaster was working with Silva.”

Alec began reading…

By mid-morning the next day he had already decided that the Quartermaster, William Roberts, known mostly by the initial Q, was in all likelihood too dangerous to live.

 


	2. Briefing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because really... its very suspicious.

In three days he met with Mallory again.

“This stinks.” Alec glared at the file as he put it down on the desk in front of Mallory, “Why haven’t you dragged him into interrogation by now?”

Mallory sat back with a sigh. “Don’t you think I want to?  The man helped Silva every step of the way.  He was promoted from R to Q because of Silva’s bomb.  Silva was captured by Bond because of Q’s help, but Silva wanted to be captured.  He–”

“He put an unknown thumb drive  belonging to a master hacker and agent, into an unsecured connected computer.” Alec said flatly, “that’s enough to fire him or fry him right there.”

“And he led Silva to Skyfall,” Mallory said, opening a bottle of alcohol and pouring a very small amount in his glass, “but he was asked to do just that.”  He offered Alec the bottle and tried not to wince as Alec put the bottle directly to his mouth. “So as you can see… I have an issue.”

“You haven’t even mentioned the obvious false identity,” Alec frowned.

“What?”

“Oh his whole background is picture perfect… too perfect.” Alec snorted. “He PROBABLY went to those schools in his CV, at least the post graduate work, but   it’s pretty obvious that the rest of his identity was faked–those might have been too.”

“Faked?” Mallory’s interest sharpened, “he was hired by M herself… but she tended to be very secretive… why do you think his resume is faked?”

“First of all, his first and last name were both the eleventh most popular in Britain when he was hired.  Novice spycraft tells you not to pick the top ten–too obvious– but you don’t want anything too uncommon.  It’s easy to mess up, though: the odds that both his first and last name were at number eleven the year he was hired? Really?”

“Suspicious, but–”

“No next of kin, no friends… the listed people to get his cats in the event of an emergency are both Q branch.”

“I am reliably informed that orphans make the best recruits.”

Alec looked at him levelly and took another swig from the bottle, “they do… for actual spies.”

Mallory considered that, “I see, but no… it isn’t typical for tech analysts or… no, not common.”

“In any event an isolated man like that? A genius working in computers? Even if his background is entirely genuine he’d be low hanging fruit to try to recruit and turn–well before we got to him.”

“So we have to find out” Mallory began

“So tell me again why you don’t just have him brought in?”

“Because he has been there, hired by M herself apparently, and I am the outsider.” Mallory sighed. “I am not unaware of my status, nor the personal loyalty Olivia engendered…”

“Olivia?”

“Olivia Mansfield, the prior M”

“…she had a name?” Alec muttered.  Then he shook himself and went on, “so he has more connections than you do.”

“and more loyalty… bringing him in would hurt my authority more than it would prove anything.”

“Well step one is you have to get someone to go out and do the footwork.  If this identity is phony? You need interviews with teachers, friends, and neighbors–the usual.  Because all the records here are computerized, which means you have no idea if those interviews actually happened.”

“Yes, and I’m trying to find people  to do that, but in the meantime you are the only Double Oh that he has never met, and your file was secured to M’s eyes only.” Mallory looked pointedly at him, “I admit I started out rather… prejudiced against a great deal of the program, but I’ve gotten over it.  If the Quartermaster is  innocent? Then we can talk to him about the problems so they don’t happen again.  If he is compromised, or lax on security and being taken advantage of? We need to remove him from the computers and deal with it.  If he is, however, an enemy?”

Alec nodded, “Then you’ll need someone of my level to deal with the problem, and everyone else knows him too well–or thinks they do.”

“Precisely.”

 


End file.
